- the son of a factory owner reflects on a way of life monotonous for all classes the same: being born, going to school, working, being married, bearing children, and dying

- a brief interruption of the monotony: an exploited girl attempts to escape to Canada with her lover x but: returns to the routines of her life in Birmingham on finding out that she was not happy as she expected

Party Going (1939):

- concern: a young and smart set of party goers is delayed in their train journey for several hours by fog

- the group resort to the station hotel and look down on the masses of less privileged travellers below them

- their trivial gossip is overshadowed by the sudden illness of one girl of the group and by the raised subject of an air raid